Kalin: ‘Incredibly pleased’ with Copenhagen results

In his two terms at the Capitol, Rep. Jeremy Kalin has emerged as a prominent voice on environmental issues, particularly the development of green jobs and cleaner energy sources. The Democrat from Long Branch sits on the House’s Energy Finance and Policy Division and the Minnesota Green Jobs Task Force. In September he was tapped by the White House to chair the Coalition of Legislators for Energy Action Now, a national organization seeking to pressure Congress to pass comprehensive climate-change and clean-energy legislation.

Kalin was one of two Minnesota legislators who traveled to Copenhagen earlier this month for the international summit on climate change sponsored by the United Nations.  Capitol Report talked with Kalin about the trip and its relationship to his work in Minnesota. What follows is an edited transcript of the conversation.

Capitol Report: Why go to Copenhagen?

Jeremy Kalin: To talk about the economic opportunities of clean energy jobs both internationally and nationally, and also as part of my work as chair of the Coalition of Legislators for Energy Action Now. And then a very local interest–the connection between my own legislative district and Sweden. Lindstrom is one of my core communities. We call ourselves ‘little Sweden.’ We’re developing the first in the country carbon-neutral industrial park.

CR: What do you think you accomplished by actually being on the ground for the summit?

Kalin: I worked very closely with state and local elected officials and the State Department in advocating for recognizing in an international agreement the role of state and local governments in addressing climate change through green-energy policies. That was actually very gratifying.

The second was a real strong connection with Malmo, Sweden. I went over and spent a day with them, a city about the size of St. Paul that is also developing a carbon-neutral business park. We’ll be working over the next few months to forge a partnership between the new Sweden in Lindstrom and the old Sweden in Malmo.

CR: As someone who’s done a lot of work on climate change, were you satisfied with the agreement that came out of this conference? 

Kalin: I’m incredibly pleased with the outcome. I think it’s going to be different from what you’ll hear from most environmental organizations that were seeking - and I think perhaps a little bit unrealistically given the political climate - a broad, legally binding international treaty.

Working with the Senate and the White House, it’s very clear that the United States Senate is where the bottleneck to international action is. If the Senate can get together and get to 60 votes on a bi-partisan or tri-partisan deal, then I think it opens the door to a true, legally binding international agreement that’s based on the United States’ leadership. Having the president and the State Department commit to something without Senate input was probably politically unrealistic and would have made the challenge for U.S. leadership that much more difficult. India and China committing to working with the United States on this accord and really coming to the table to reduce their emissions is huge.

CR: What did you learn at this conference that you think can incorporate into work at the Capitol?

Kalin: Certainly building on the opportunity for the Scandinavian partnership. I couldn’t believe the hunger to partner with Minnesota that I heard from Danes, Norwegians and Swedes. I also had the opportunity to talk to a lot of U.S. clean-tech businesses, from Honeywell to a lot of start-ups and a lot of venture capital folks. My goal is to work with the BioBusiness Alliance of Minnesota and others to put together a clean-tech summit for venture capitalists from the coasts, as well as internationally, later this summer.

I also think we have to pass the angel investor tax credit here in Minnesota to help spur the start-ups and make sure that Minnesota has a fair chance, that we don’t lose out to states like Wisconsin or the coasts that have this start-up tax credit.

CR: Why is that important? What would the tax credit accomplish?

Kalin: For an investor, it essentially provides a $4 return on a $3 investment because it’s a 25 percent tax credit on the first portion of investment in early-stage companies. For the state, the return on investment is huge. It’s something like 10-to-1 or greater.

We’ve already lost a couple of bio-sciences companies to Hudson, Wisconsin, because Wisconsin has the credit and we don’t. I’m not a big fan of using tax credits all the time, but you have to look at where’s the case for doing it. Clearly in clean-tech we have this incredibly growing part of our economy. Where everyone else is losing jobs, we’ve actually grown about 4.5 percent over the last two years in clean-energy jobs. The tax credit is really critical to make sure that we build on that opportunity and don’t let other states or other countries beat us to it.

CR: Are there any other specific legislative proposals that you intend to push for this legislative session that relate, whether directly or indirectly, to climate change?

Kalin: Absolutely. The core issue for me is eliminating the incentive for utilities to keep putting in more assets, building more plants, building more powerlines. That is just about making profits for them, not about actually keeping the lights on at the lowest cost to rate-payers. I’ll be introducing the ‘Rate-Payer Protection Act’ that will allow utilities to actually earn money on the cheapest investment, which is energy efficiency. Right now the way things are set up utilities are still penalized for doing energy conservation. Utilities like Xcel Energy, Great River Energy are required right now to chase after the most expensive assets, the most expensive way to keep the lights on.

CR: Gov. Pawlenty has been much less enthusiastic lately about aggressively dealing with climate change and all but one of the Republican candidates for governor deny that it’s a serious problem. What do you think of that?

Kalin: Energy has always been where my interest has been much more than carbon dioxide. It just so happens that if you power the economy through cleaner energy, then of course you get the reductions to carbon dioxide and other pollutants. Regardless of how you feel about global warming and climate change, just making our energy system more secure, more energy efficient, a source of real job creation, is positive. I’m not so concerned about people’s political motivations. I’m concerned about just how we make our energy system reliable and as clean as possible at the lowest cost.

Copenhagen Climate Conference

Number of world leaders in attendance:  110

Number of limousines used by attendees: over 1,200

Number of those limousines that were electric cars or hybrids: 5

Number of binding international agreements to emerge from the conference: 0

(Source:  BBC, The Telegraph of London)